Forums attract top-notch speakers who regularly address topics such as business
policies and practices, retirement income planning, and professional real estate
license defense.

When Danielle Corliss and her husband Jim first became active in real estate, they worked for large
brokerages, where they discovered that they truly enjoy helping people buy and sell homes. In 2006, they
opened Corliss Realty because they wanted to work as a team, to put their collective experience into practice,
and to customize the service they provide to their clients. For the third year in a row, Danielle is chairing
the Orange County REALTORS® (OCR) Independent Broker Advisory, the committee that schedules OCR’s
Independent Broker Forums and secures speakers for these gatherings. Recently, OCR President Craig Borner
appointed Danielle to the OCR Board of Directors, where she serves as the liaison between the Independent
Broker Advisory Committee and the Board.

What is an independent broker?

A broker who has fewer than
one hundred agents and is not
franchised.

How did the Independent
Broker Forum get started?

Many years ago, when print
advertising in newspapers was a
really great way to sell homes, the
large brokerages had a distinct
advantage because they could
afford to run full-page ads while
the independent brokers could
not. By pooling their resources,
independent brokers were able to
secure similar advertising space
and to promote their listings more
effectively.

What are the goals of the
Independent Brokers Forums
today?

Obviously, the goals have changed.
Today, we are not about buying
large amounts of print advertising
space, but we still want to gain
more exposure for independent
brokers and to share information that will help them be more successful. Our bimonthly forums provide a place where independent brokers can meet one another, share ideas about best practices, gain a better understanding of the marketplace, and become aware of new trends and tools.

When and where do you hold the Independent Broker Forums?

We meet five or six times a year in the large auditorium at OCR’s Laguna Hills office. At one time, we met regularly on a specific day of the week during a particular week of the month, but that rigid schedule proved unsatisfactory because the meeting dates we chose seldom coincided with the days on which the speakers our members most wanted to hear were available. Recently, we have followed a more flexible schedule, one that revolves around the availability of
top-notch speakers.

How many independent brokers attend the forums?

Attendance ranges from about eighty to one hundred twenty, but we would like to attract as many as two hundred or more.

When is the next Independent Broker Forum?

Our next forum will be on Tuesday, April 4, at 11:00 a.m. The speaker will be Mary Work, a former California Bureau of Real Estate (CalBRE) prosecution lawyer. Her practice is primarily devoted to professional real estate license defense. She has been a featured speaker at California Association of REALTORS®(C.A.R.) meetings, where her topic was “When CalBRE Knocks at Your Door.”

In addition, motivational speaker Terry Watson will be here in September. According to his flyer, he “delivers fast-paced, engaging, highly interactive, laugh-until-you-snort, uncannily relevant, immediately usable, real-world information.” Incidentally, he comes from a family of independent brokers.

What are the benefits of participating in Independent Broker Forums?

It’s an opportunity to utilize our peer experience and interactions to meet mutual challenges and solve shared problems—and we serve a really good lunch!